Mike Masnick writes:
Last fall we wrote about some surprising allegations that Francis Gurry, the director of WIPO (the World Intellectual Property Organization — a part of the UN), had surreptitiously taken DNA samples from employees while trying to determine who had sent him anonymous letters. This is the same Gurry who was already involved in highly questionable scandals involving ignoring UN sanctions against both North Korea and Iran, to send them computers, which WIPO idiotically believed those countries would use to bolster their local patent systems. Because, when you think of Iran and North Korea, I’m sure you think about their patent systems.
There had been some public efforts by a few members of Congress to oppose Gurry’s re-election to WIPO because of these infractions, but all that seemed for naught a couple months ago when Gurry was re-nominated. It’s not final that he’ll remain as director, but it’s almost entirely assured. A few weeks ago, however, I saw that stories of the DNA collection had resurfaced, mainly in a blog post by noted patent lawyer and blogger Gene Quinn. While Quinn and I disagree about nearly everything patent related — sometimes angrily — his blog is still a worthwhile read, and this original story had caught my attention. Quinn had a copy of the “Report of Misconduct” filed by James Pooley, one of Gurry’s deputies, going into much more detail on Gurry’s actions with regards to the illegal DNA collection, and calling into serious question Gurry’s ability to lead WIPO. You can read much more about Pooley’s charges in a Fox News report. However, you can no longer read the report or Quinn’s analysis of it because WIPO threatened Quinn with criminal charges for posting it.
Read more on TechDirt.
Thanks to Joe Cadillic for this link.